Our Lost HolidayOn Friday morning the New York Times predicted, “Rising
unemployment, stagnant wages and fury at the way that governments are handling
the financial crisis were expected to bring unusually large crowds onto the
streets of Europe on Friday to mark May Day, the traditional workers’ holiday.”
They were right on the money.

In France, for the first time in generations, all
unions and working class parties joined in a united front effort. The biggest
union federation, CGT, reports 1.2 million people marched in 283 demonstrations.

An editorial in the mainstream British daily
Guardian commented,

“When the former prime minister Dominique de Villepin
warned that there was a risk of revolution in France, it was not just because he
wanted to make life difficult for his arch-rival Nicolas Sarkozy. It was also
because social unrest is genuinely on the rise.”

There were many other significant marches and rallies on
all inhabited continents. Some included confrontations with police. A thousand
bravely marched in occupied Baghdad. Many defied the government ban on public
gatherings to march in Mexico City. We’ll have a roundup of news and photos
about these actions posted on Monday’s Daily Labor News Digest.

In 2006, after decades of being
ignored by the labor movement, there was a revival of May Day in its country of
origin–the USA. Like the first May Day in 1886 it was led by immigrant workers.
Some cities, such as Chicago and Los Angeles, had marches and rallies numbering
in the hundreds of thousands. A few unions endorsed these actions, and
contributed material support.

But since that promising time
subsequent May Day events have shrunk. In most places this year they were well
under ten percent of the 2006 turnout. Various reasons are cited: intimidation
from the surge in ICE workplace raids, the current Swine Flu alarm, etc. No
doubt these are significant.

Perhaps an even bigger factor is
the change in the White House. It’s one thing to organize militant
demonstrations aimed at Bush, the most in-your-face reactionary administration
in living memory. Obama is supposed to be different. He is promising immigration
reform. Illusions that we now have a friend working for us at the top changes
both the character and sense of urgency that marked previous May Day actions.
That, in my view, is the chief reason that even this most combative sector of
the U.S. working class is looking more like the quiescent union, antiwar and
social movements.

Why is it that workers in Europe,
not yet as bad off as those of us in the U.S., are raising hell in the workplace
and in the streets while American workers have never been so timid and pliable?
Have our brains become addled? Have we become lazy, cowardly?

I don’t think it’s a question of
national intelligence or character flaws. Every now and then we see glimpses of
inspiring struggle that remind us of our once proud heritage. The big difference
between us and say the French, is that the flame of class consciousness has
never been extinguished in Old Europe. They know the difference between Them and
Us. The last several generations of American workers, on the other hand, have
become befuddled and debilitated by the dope of class collaboration peddled by
the politicians and most union officials.

For a fresh example let’s look at
another event on May Day.

Tripartite Bankruptcy Alpha
This May Day the leaders of the once mighty United Auto Workers were in
lock-step with the White House and Chrysler’s emerging new bosses, filing
bankruptcy for what remains of the weakest of the former Big Three. Our friend
Larry Christensen, a retired member of UAW Local 140 in Detroit, wrote an
excellent summary of the partnership deal--Chrysler's
Plan? Send Pay and Standards Down the Drain–on
Labor Notes online.

The bankruptcy petition, filed
with the same judge that presided over the Enron and WorldCom disasters, is
really a dress rehearsal for an even bigger one at General Motors. Just when we
thought things could hardly get worse the Obama administration came up with a
new transformational tactic in labor relations.

President Obama would have us
think the bad guys in this deal are a few hedge funds that wouldn’t accept
dubious equity in a new Fiat-Chrysler in exchange for massive debts owed them.
Hedge funds are deservedly unpopular and I will not mourn their losses. But this
is only an effort to divert attention from the hundreds of thousands of real
victims of this tripartite agreement–union and salaried Chrysler workers and
retirees; workers at parts suppliers; dealerships employing thousands of
workers; Midwest cities and towns losing their life blood.

All of Chrysler’s 23 U.S. plants
will be closed throughout the bankruptcy process. At least eight of them are
pegged for elimination.

The impact of the filing was felt
within hours. Parts suppliers immediately cut off their just-in-time deliveries,
not only leading to early closings of U.S. plants but also Chrysler Canada as
well, who are not part of the American bankruptcy.

Those who get special supplements
to their regular Chrysler pensions found their May payments cancelled. The
special supplements are not covered under the government’s pension guarantee and
that part of their pension will be subject to disposal by the judge.

While the administration has said
it will guarantee warranty work many Chrysler dealers expect to run out of
filters and other key routine maintenance parts while plants are closed.

Even if all goes to plan during
the bankruptcy–by no means a sure thing–this is the single biggest defeat yet
suffered by the American working class. Of course, it will be soon eclipsed
by a Beta version of a similar sell-out at GM.

The current GM restructuring plan
calls for take-backs from the UAW similar to Chrysler and includes trimming
47,000 jobs, closing more than a dozen plants in the United States, eliminating
four brands and shuttering 2,600 dealerships. Obama has not yet approved and
will likely demand more cuts.

The leadership of the UAW not
only rejects a French-style resistance; they refuse to even acknowledge this
severe defeat. They say it is only a rough patch in the partnership road that
will ultimately lead to a return to prosperity. Nothing can be more disorienting
and demoralizing than this disingenuous cynicism.

The UAW is not unique in inducing
mind altering, feel good trances. Even as newspapers were disclosing Obama’s
personal “hard ball” intervention in extracting the last ounce of flesh from the
UAW contract, an article and video on the AFL-CIO website earlier this week
proclaimed, “Obama’s First 100 Days Mark Major Wins for Working Families.”
Change to Win was just as lavish in praise, “....as the last 100 days have
proven, with a leader like Obama at the helm, workers once again have a shot at
achieving the American Dream.”

Now as tamed and house broken as
the new White House puppy, these groupies are being herded by Obama and Dave
Bonior in to the National Labor Coordinating Committee. Future generations will
likely view this as a sort of Jurassic Park where the last surviving examples of
laborus tyrannis were put on display.

Recently I had a discussion with
a Ford worker who told me that while he liked the program of the Labor Party he
couldn’t support it because it aimed to be based on unions. In his opinion, the
unions are effectively dead as useful institutions.

I understand his sentiment. The
mainstream union bureaucracy is clearly beyond any hope for self-reform and
their certain demise may well take some, or all, existing unions through a
painful death agony.

But while these labor
statespersons may be on their way to a just doom I think my Ford friend’s last
rites for the unions is premature. To shift uncomplimentary metaphors, the mis-leaders
of labor are not a vital organ in the union body–they are a neglected parasite.
They cannot survive without their host; our unions won’t long survive without
their removal.

Unions are the basic front line
defense of working people. They can also be the building blocks for working
class political action. If we have to, we will build new unions to replace dead
ones. But it would be malpractice to abandon sick unions without pursuing every
reasonable effort for saving and rehabilitating them.

Labor Notes provides a valuable, reliable
source of news, analysis, and debate about these crucial issues. If you’re not a
regular reader you should be and can subscribe by clicking here.
Labor Notes is also running a special series of regional Troublemakers Schoolsdealing with the current economic
crisis. The next one is coming up this Saturday, May 9, in Chicago.

In Brief
¶ With confusion dominating news about Swine Flu the CNA/NNOC Position Statement on Swine
Fluwas a welcome breath of fresh air. It combines the
professional challenges for nurses on the front line with a restatement of their
social advocacy program for single-payer healthcare, more public spending on
services, healthcare worker rights on the job, and more. As usual, a job well
done.
¶ Workers occupying a Ford/Visteon plant in West Belfast, Ireland today voted to
accept a redundancy deal their union described as worth “ten times more” than
the company’s initial offer. After the employer announced the plant’s
closing--with an hour notice--34 days ago the 600 workers decided to sit-in
until they got fair treatment. Even with today’s vote the Belfast workers are
not leaving the plant until workers at two British plants also approve–and the
first company payments are received.
¶ There’s more good news/bad news for Social Security pensioners. This month
most of us will get 250 bucks to help us put America on the road to recovery.
Also welcome is the expectation there will be no increase in our monthly premium
for Medicare Part B next year. Of course, the reason for the Part B freeze is
that for the first time in 34 years there will be no cost-of-living increase in
monthly benefits.
¶ An American Lung Association report found that air pollution at times reaches
unhealthy levels in almost every major city and that 186.1 million people live
in those areas. The number is much higher than last year's figure of about 125
million people because recent changes to the federal ozone standard mean more
counties recognize unhealthy levels of pollution. Health effects from air
pollution include changes in lung function, coughing, heart attacks, lung cancer
and premature death.
¶ More bad news on greenhouse gas emissions as well from Canada. The Globe &
Mail reports, “Emissions were 26 per cent above their 1990 level, when
modern record-keeping began, violating a key pledge Canada made in the Kyoto
Protocol to cut them by 6 per cent.”

Next week I plan to say something
about what’s happening to U.S. newspapers.